Method and apparatus for providing an emergency notification for an allergic reaction

ABSTRACT

A method and an apparatus for providing a notification of a usage of a medical injector are disclosed. For example, the method determines location information of the medical injector. The method then detects the usage of the medical injector, and records a time of the usage of the medical injector. The method then sends the notification comprising the time at which the usage of the medical injector is detected and the location information of the medical injector.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/824,708, filed Nov. 28, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,055,962, which isa continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/450,057, filedMar. 6, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,847,005, which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/475,237, filed Sep. 2, 2014, nowU.S. Pat. No. 9,589,443, which are herein incorporated by reference intheir entirety.

The present disclosure relates generally to providing an emergencynotification for an allergic reaction, e.g., over a wireless networksuch as a long term evolution (LTE) based wireless network, and thelike.

BACKGROUND

Severe allergic reaction affects millions of people around the world.Life-threatening allergic reactions may result from foods, e.g.,peanuts, shellfish, various fruits, or insect bites or stings such asbee stings, or wasp stings, or any other environmental reactants ingeneral. To address this potential life threatening event, vulnerableindividuals may carry medication to be administered in case ofemergency. For example, an individual may carry an epinephrineauto-injector, e.g., an EpiPen®, an Auvi-Q™, etc. to be administeredwhen the individual is inadvertently exposed to an allergen. Applyingthe epinephrine auto-injector is only a temporary measure. Namely,administering of the epinephrine provides the affected individual with asmall window of opportunity to receive further emergency medicalattention in the critical minutes that follow. However, critical timemay be wasted between the injection of the epinephrine and the follow uplife-saving medical care. For example, if the allergic reaction occurredin an unfamiliar location, an affected individual calling for medicalhelp may not be able to provide an accurate description of the locationor address at which the emergency occurred. In another example, theaffected individual may be in a panic or partially incapacitated afterthe exposure to the allergen and is unable to provide accurate locationinformation.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

In one embodiment, the present disclosure describes a method andapparatus providing a notification of a usage of a medical injector,e.g., over a wireless network. For example, the method determineslocation information of the medical injector. The method then detectsthe usage of the medical injector, and records a time of the usage ofthe medical injector. The method then sends the notification comprisingthe time at which the usage of the medical injector is detected and thelocation information of the medical injector.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The teaching of the present disclosure can be readily understood byconsidering the following detailed description in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary network related to the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates a method of the present disclosure for providing anemergency notification for an allergic reaction implemented in anepinephrine auto-injector;

FIG. 3 illustrates a method of the present disclosure for providing anemergency notification for an allergic reaction implemented in a serverof a service provider network; and

FIG. 4 depicts a high-level block diagram of a general-purpose computersuitable for use in performing the functions described herein.

To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have beenused, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common tothe figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure broadly describes a method and apparatusproviding an emergency notification for an allergic reaction. Althoughthe teachings of the present disclosure are discussed below in thecontext of a long term evolution (LTE) based wireless network, theteaching is not so limited. Namely, the teachings of the presentdisclosure can be applied via any other types of wireless networks(e.g., 2G network, 3G network, and the like), wherein providing anemergency assistance to an individual suffering from an allergicreaction may be beneficial.

In one embodiment, the method provides an epinephrine auto-injector thatis able to determine and provide information as to its location (e.g.,physical geographic location). Although, epinephrine auto-injectors arediscussed in the present disclosure, the present disclosure is not solimited. Namely, the present disclosure is broadly applicable to amedical injector for delivering a medication to an affected individualwho is suffering from an allergic reaction. Thus, the teachings of thepresent disclosure are not limited to a specific type of epinephrineauto-injector.

The medical injector of the present disclosure may utilize any locationtechnology or system, e.g., global navigation satellite system (GNSS)such as Global Positioning System (GPS), Galileo or GLONASS, fordetermining its own physical location. For example, a GPS receiver ofthe medical injector may be used to determine the latitudinal andlongitudinal coordinate at which the medical injector is located. In oneembodiment, the medical injector may also indicate the altitude suchthat a location may be more precisely indicated in multistory buildings,underground transportation systems (e.g., train stations), etc.

In one embodiment, the medical injector may also have aMachine-to-Machine (M2M) communications capability for providing anemergency notification when the medical injector is used or triggered(i.e., when the medication is dispensed from the medical injector). Inone embodiment, the medical injector may comprise a wireless fidelity(Wi-Fi), a cellular, or any other wireless communication interface. Whentriggered, the medical injector of the present disclosure is capable ofsending a notification comprising a time of injection and the physicallocation information of the medical injector (broadly deemed to be thelocation of a “potential patient” who needs immediate medical attention)to any number of recipients. For example, the sending of thenotification is automatically triggered upon detection of a usage of themedical injector, e.g., upon detecting that the EpiPen® or the Auvi-Q™is used. The term “intended patient” or “potential patient” refers to aperson for whom the medical injector is planned to be administered. Forexample, if a particular medical injector is to be injected into aperson A, in case of an allergic reaction, then person A is the intendedpatient.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary network 100 related to the presentdisclosure. In one illustrative embodiment, the network 100 comprises awireless network 101, a core network 113, and emergency service providersystem 115. The wireless network 101 may comprise any number of wirelessaccess networks, e.g. Wi-Fi networks, 2G networks, 3G networks, LTEnetworks, etc. The core network may comprise any number of applicationservers, gateway devices, routers, and switches of a network serviceprovider. For example, the core network 113 may comprise a server 131for providing a messaging service, an application server 132 forproviding the emergency dispatch service of the present disclosure, anda database 133. The database 133 may be used for storing data, e.g.,personalized information of intended patients, serial numbers of medicalinjectors, and a list of contacts for each intended patient forreceiving the notification, e.g., emergency service providers, primaryphysicians, parents, guardians, roommates, family members, schoolofficials of an educational institution, and the like. The emergencyservice provider system 115 may comprise any number and type ofemergency service provider systems. For example, the emergency serviceprovider system may comprise one or more of: an NG911 system, an E911system, and a 911 system.

FIG. 1 also illustrates various epinephrine auto-injectors 120-122(broadly medical injectors) and a local device 125. The epinephrineauto-injectors 120-122 are equipped with wireless capabilities as wellas capabilities to determine their respective physical locations. Eachepinephrine auto-injector is assigned a unique serial number that can betransmitted when the epinephrine auto-injector is triggered. In oneembodiment, the local device comprises: a mobile phone such as a smartphone associated with the intended patient, a smart phone in thevicinity of the intended patient with a capability to relay notificationmessages, a server, a router, etc. For example, a Wi-Fi hotspot device,a mobile hotspot device, etc., may serve as a local device.

It should be noted that although various networks and network elementsare shown separately in FIG. 1, it is possible that functions performedby these networks and network elements can be combined into fewernetworks and/or network elements, or expanded into a greater number ofnetworks and/or network elements depending on the deploymentrequirements.

It should also be noted that the above illustrated network 100 is onlyillustrative and the number of network components or elements are notspecifically limited as shown. Any number of network components orelements can be deployed. For example, there may be several wirelessnetworks, emergency service provider networks, core networks for severalnetwork service providers. In addition, any number of network elementsmay be deployed in each of the networks.

In one embodiment, a medical injector may send a notification to theemergency service provider system 115 via the wireless network 101. Inanother embodiment, the medical injector may send the notification tothe emergency service provider system 115 via the wireless network 101and the core network 113. In yet another embodiment, the medicalinjector may send the notification via the local device 125. In turn,the local device 125 relays the notification towards the emergencyservice provider system 115 via the wireless network 101 and/or the corenetwork 113.

In one embodiment, the notification comprises personalized informationof the intended patient. In one embodiment, the intended patient, acaregiver, a physician, a parent or any other authorized person, mayconfigure the personalized information of the intended patient in themedical injector. The personalized information comprises any informationthat may be needed in case of emergency. For example, in one embodiment,the medical injector may comprise an In-Case-of-Emergency (ICE)Application (App). The intended patient or a caregiver may interact withthe ICE App and enter emergency contacts (e.g., a family member, aguardian, a next of kin, a caregiver, a doctor, a neighbor, a schoolofficial, a nurse, etc. and their respective phone numbers, emailaddresses, etc.), relationship to intended patient for each emergencycontact, a list of allergen triggers associated with the intendedpatient's allergic reaction (e.g., peanut, any number and types treenuts, pollen, dairy, egg, wheat, soy, bee sting, wasp sting, etc.), theintended patient's statistics (e.g., age, gender, weight, etc), othermedications taken by the intended patient, and any other healthpertinent data (e.g., other illnesses or health conditions that mayaffect medical treatment).

In one embodiment, the medical injector may download the personalizedinformation from another location, e.g., a server. For the example ofFIG. 1, the personalized information may be stored in the database 133located in network 113 and retrieved via the application server 132, asneeded. In some scenarios, storing the personalized information in thenetwork service provider's network has certain advantages. For instance,the intended patient, doctor, or caregiver may prefer having thepersonalized information located in a more secure environment. In casethe intended patient misplaces the medical injector, the personalizedinformation stored in the server of the service provider would not becompromised. In addition, if the medical injector is lost or destroyed,the personalized information would not need to be configured in a newmedical injector. Rather, the new medical injector's serial number wouldbe registered in the server and correlated with the intended patient,thereby reducing the amount of work needed by the intended patientand/or caregiver to keep the most up to date personalized information.In one embodiment, the personalized information may be accessed, updatedand/or customized by the intended patient, caregiver, or a healthcareprovider, via a mobile application and/or a web portal.

In one embodiment, in order to receive emergency notifications frommedical injectors, the emergency service provider may subscribe to anemergency notification service from a network service provider. Forexample, if the network service provider stores the personalizedinformation of a particular list of medical injector users, thesubscription may enable the emergency service provider to seekpermission to receive the personalized information. Upon being grantedthe permission, the emergency service provider may receive the emergencymessages either directly from the medical injectors or through thenetwork service provider.

In one embodiment, the notification comprises a serial number associatedwith the medical injector. For example, the serial number may be used tocorrelate a particular medical injector that has been used with aparticular potential patient in need of emergency care. For example, theserial number of the medical injector may be provided to the server forstoring with the personalized information of the potential patient. Theserial number may be provided to the server either when the personalizedinformation is configured or as an update. For example, a serial numberof a new medical injector may be provided to the server as an updatewhen the previous medical injector expires or is misplaced. It isimportant to note that any number of medical injectors may be registeredfor one particular individual. When the medical injector is applied, themedical injector may send its serial number to the server. The servermay then use the serial number for correlating with a particularpotential patient's personalized information. The server may thenprovide the personalized information to the emergency service providerautomatically or as requested by the emergency service provider.

In one embodiment, the medical injector provides the notificationdirectly to an emergency service provider, e.g., a 911, E911, NG911service provider, serving the location at which the medical injector isphysically located. In another embodiment, the notification may be sentto an application server of a network service provider. For example, acentralized application server of a network service provider may receiveand process the messages from medical injectors as a subscribed service,and augment any additional information when available, and then notifythe emergency service providers. In one example, the 911 serviceprovider providing emergency services at the location at which themedical injector is located may not be capable of receivingnotifications directly from medical injectors. In another example, the911 service provider may not be able to receive a text message. Hence,the network service provider, e.g., AT&T® and the like, may receive thenotification from the medical injector, convert the notification to aformat appropriate for the emergency service provider, and then send thenotification in the appropriate format to the 911 service provider. Forinstance, the network service provider may convert the text messagedescribed above to a voice format prior to forwarding to the 911 serviceprovider.

As described above, the personalized information of the intended patientmay be stored in a server of a network service provider or in themedical injector itself. If the personalized information is stored inthe medical injector, the medical injector may directly provide theinformation to the emergency service provider directly, provided thatthe emergency service provider is capable of receiving the informationdirectly from the medical injector. If the emergency service providercannot receive the personalized information directly from the medicalinjector, the network service provider converts the information to theappropriate format prior to forwarding to the emergency serviceprovider.

In one embodiment, if the personalized information is stored at theapplication server of the network service provider, the applicationserver provides the personalized information to the medical injector,when the medical injector is used. For example, the usage of the medicalinjector may serve as a trigger for a communication to occur between theapplication server and the medical injector for the purpose of providingthe information to the medical injector.

In one embodiment, the personalized information may also be sent to adisplay of the medial injection upon the injection being applied, e.g.,in the event that the potential patient becomes incapacitated after theinjection is applied. For example, a potential patient may becomeunconscious after the medical injector is applied. In such scenario, acare provider arriving at the scene may be able to see the personalizedinformation displayed on the medical injector that has been used. Itshould be noted that the personalized information may optionally includeadditional updated medical information, e.g., recent medications ortreatments received by the potential patient that may impact how theincapacitated patient should be treated.

In another embodiment, the medical injector sends a notification withits location information and serial number to the emergency serviceproviders and to the application server. The application server maymodify the notification by augmenting the notification with thepersonalized information of the intended patient. The network serviceprovider may then further notify the emergency service provider, withthe modified notification. The emergency service provider may thenreceive the time of injection, the location information, and the serialnumber, without waiting for the duration of time needed for identifyingthe intended patient and retrieving the personalized information of theintended patient. The emergency service provider may then dispatchemergency personnel as soon as possible. In turn, the modifiednotification may then be received by the emergency personnel for useduring treatment of the patient.

In one embodiment, the network service provider may perform additionalnotifications to other recipients. For example, there may be apreviously provided list of recipients. In one embodiment, the otherrecipients may comprise one or more of: a family member, a guardian, anext of kin, a caregiver, a doctor, a neighbor, a school official, anurse, and the like.

In one embodiment, the medical injector is able to communicate withother local devices, e.g., smart phones, Wi-Fi servers, etc. When themedical injector is triggered, the medical injector may then send itslocation information its serial number, and/or personalized informationof the intended patient via the other local devices. The other localdevices may then relay the information to the 911 service provider,e.g., an NG911 system serving the location at which the medical injectoris physically located and/or the network service provider. If theinformation is relayed to the network service provider, the networkservice provider forwards the information to the emergency serviceprovider. If the personalized information of the intended patient is notincluded in the information received by the network service provider,the network service provider may augment the necessary information, asneeded. Similar to the scenario described above, the network serviceprovider may also perform additional notifications to other recipients.

In one embodiment, the local device may not be a personal deviceassociated with the patient. For example, the local device may be apublicly usable Wi-Fi server. In another embodiment, the local devicemay be a personal device associated with the potential patient. Forexample, the local device may be the potential patient's smart phone. Inwhich case, the local device may also be configured to provideadditional information that the patient may not have stored in themedical injector. For example, the smart phone may be able to access thepotential patient's medical information from another location, e.g., adoctor's record, an insurance company record, a hospital record, or apharmacy record, that may be stored at other locations, i.e., remotefrom the potential patient's current location. The smart phone of thepotential patient may then send the additional information to theemergency service provider and/or the network service provider. Theadditional information is sent along with the notification.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method 200 of the present disclosure for providingan emergency notification for an allergic reaction implemented in anepinephrine auto-injector (broadly a medical injector). For example, themethod may be implemented in an EpiPen® or an Auvi-Q™. Method 200 startsin step 205 and proceeds to step 210.

In step 210, method 200 determines location information of theepinephrine auto-injector. For example, (e.g., physical location)information of the epinephrine auto-injector may be determined byutilizing a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver of the epinephrineauto-injector. In one embodiment, the location information comprises thelatitudinal and longitudinal coordinate at which the epinephrineauto-injector is located. In one embodiment, the epinephrineauto-injector may also indicate the altitude at which the epinephrineauto-injector is located.

In step 215, method 200 detects a usage of the epinephrine auto-injectorand records a time at which the usage is detected. For example, theusage of the medical injector triggers a communication such that theemergency service provider is able to dispatch emergency personnel tothe location at which the medical injector is administered to thepotential patient.

In optional step 220, method 200 obtains personalized information of anintended patient. The personalized information comprises informationthat may be used, in case of emergency, to provide emergency care to theintended patient after the usage of the epinephrine auto-injector.

In one embodiment, the potential patient, a caregiver, a physician, orany other authorized person, may configure the personalized informationof the intended patient in the medical injector. For example, in oneembodiment, the medical injector may comprise an In-Case-of-Emergency(ICE) Application (App). The potential patient, or a caregiver mayinteract with the ICE App and enter the personalized information.

In one embodiment, the personalized information comprises one or moreof: a list of emergency contacts and a means of reaching the emergencycontacts (e.g., a family member, a guardian, a next of kin, a caregiver,a doctor, a neighbor, a school official, a nurse, etc. and theirrespective phone numbers, email addresses, etc.), relationship to thepotential patient for each emergency contact, a list of triggers for thepotential patient's allergic reaction (e.g., peanut, any number andtypes tree nuts, pollen, dairy, egg, wheat, soy, etc.), the potentialpatient's statistics (e.g., age, gender, weight, etc), other medicationsprescribed to the potential patient, and any other health pertinent data(e.g., other illnesses or health conditions that may affect treatment).

In one embodiment, the medical injector may obtain the personalizedinformation from a server or a database of a network service provider.In one embodiment, the personalized information is obtained by themedical injector upon usage of the medical injector. For example, theusage of the medical injector may serve as a trigger for a communicationto occur between the server and the medical injector for the purpose ofproviding the personalized information to the medical injector.

In one embodiment, the medical injector may obtain the personalizedinformation via a local device. In one embodiment, the local device maybe a personal device associated with the potential patient. For example,the local device may be the potential patient's smart phone. Forexample, the smart phone may be able to access the potential patient'spersonalized information, e.g., medical information from anotherlocation. The smart phone of the potential patient may then provide thepersonalized information to the medical injector.

In one embodiment, the personalized information may be accessed, updatedand/or customized by a potential patient, caregiver, healthcareprovider, etc. via a mobile application and/or a web portal.

In one embodiment, the personalized information is information to beaccessed by an emergency service provider on a subscription basis. Forexample, if the network service provider stores the personalizedinformation of a particular list of medical injector users, thesubscription may enable the emergency service provider to seekpermission to receive the personalized information of the particularlist of medical injector users. Upon being granted the permission, theemergency service provider may receive the emergency notificationseither directly from the medical injectors, or through the networkservice provider.

In step 230, method 200 sends a notification comprising the time atwhich the usage of the medical injector is detected and the locationinformation. The method then proceeds to step 210 to continuedetermining a current location of the medical injector or to step 250 toend processing the present notification.

FIG. 3 illustrates a method 300 of the present disclosure for providingan emergency notification for an allergic reaction implemented in aserver or a general purpose computer as shown in FIG. 4 of a serviceprovider network. Method 300 starts in step 305 and proceeds to step310.

In optional step 310, method 300 stores personalized information of anintended patient and a serial number of an epinephrine auto-injector(broadly a medical injector) for the intended patient. For example, auser of an epinephrine auto-injector may register a particularepinephrine auto-injector's serial number and his/her personalizedinformation. In one embodiment, the personalized information comprisesone or more of: a list of emergency contacts and a means of reaching theemergency contacts (e.g., a family member, a guardian, a next of kin, acaregiver, a doctor, a neighbor, a school official, a nurse, etc. andtheir respective phone numbers, email addresses, etc.), relationship tothe intended patient for each emergency contact, a list of triggers forthe intended patient's allergic reaction (e.g., peanut, any number andtypes tree nuts, pollen, dairy, egg, wheat, soy, etc.), the intendedpatient's statistics (age, gender, weight, etc), other prescribedmedications of the intended patient, and any other health pertinent data(e.g., other illnesses or health conditions that may affect treatment).

In optional step 320, method 300 receives a list of recipients of anotification when the medical injector is used. For example, a list ofemergency contacts and a means of reaching the emergency contacts (e.g.,a family member, a next of kin, a doctor, a neighbor, a school official,a nurse, etc. and their respective phone numbers, email addresses,etc.), and the like, may be received on a per use basis, i.e., when themedical injector is applied.

In step 330, method 300 receives a notification that indicates themedical injector is used. The notification comprises a time of usage,and a location at which the medical injector is used. In one embodiment,the notification further comprises the serial number of the medicalinjector. As described above, in one embodiment, the patient, caregiver,physician, or any other authorized person, may configure thepersonalized information of the intended patient in the medicalinjector. If the personalized information of the intended patient isstored in the medical injector, the notification further comprises thepersonalized information of the intended patient.

In optional step 340, method 300 augments the notification that isreceived with the personalized information. For example, if thepersonalized information is stored in the service provider's network,the server adds the personalized information to the notification that isreceived from the medical injector, thereby amending the notificationthat is received by adding the personalized information.

In step 350, method 300 notifies wirelessly an emergency serviceprovider serving the location at which the medical injector is used,e.g., the physical location of the medical injector. The locationinformation received from the medical injector indicates the location atwhich the medical injector is physically located. In one embodiment, themethod notifies the emergency service provider prior to executing step340, such that the notification occurs without delay. In one embodiment,the method 300 may optionally cause a phone call to be placed to theintended patient or a designated phone number to inquire about thedeployment of the medical injector. This optional step allows forverification to be made before emergency services are summoned on behalfof the intended patient. The method may then perform step 340 andprovide a further notification for use during treatment of the intendedpatient. In other words, steps 340 and 350 may occur in any orderserially or in parallel.

In one embodiment, the emergency service provider providing emergencyservices at the location at which the medical injector is located maynot be capable of receiving notifications directly from medicalinjectors or in a format the notification is received from the medicalinjectors. For instance, the emergency service provider may not be ableto receive a text message. Hence, method 300 may first convert thenotification to a format appropriate for the emergency service providerprior to notifying the emergency service provider. For example, if theemergency service provider is not able to receive text messages, themethod 300 may convert notifications that are in a text format to avoice format, prior to forwarding to the emergency service provider.

In optional step 360, method 300 sends the notification to the list ofrecipients of the notification. For example, the method sends thenotification to the list of recipients received in step 320 or to thelist of recipients previously registered in step 310, e.g., by theintended patient or a caregiver. The method either proceeds to step 370to end processing the current notification or to step 310.

As such, the present disclosure provides at least one advancement in thetechnical field of medical injectors that provide a notification of themedical injector's use and its current location. This advancement is inaddition to the traditional use of the medical injector as a vehicle forthe delivery of a medication to an intended patient. Viewed in anothermanner, the present disclosure provides a transformation of theactivation of a medical injector into a trigger for sending anotification of the medical injector's application and the medicalinjector's current location. Such notification can bring about a rapidresponse in summoning emergency services to a location in which themedical injector was triggered.

FIG. 4 depicts a high-level block diagram of a general-purpose computersuitable for use in performing the functions described herein. Asdepicted in FIG. 4, the system 400 comprises one or more hardwareprocessor elements 402 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), amicroprocessor, or a multi-core processor), a memory 404, e.g., randomaccess memory (RAM) and/or read only memory (ROM), a module 405 forproviding an emergency notification for an allergic reaction, andvarious input/output devices 406 (e.g., storage devices, including butnot limited to, a tape drive, a floppy drive, a hard disk drive or acompact disk drive, a receiver, a transmitter, a speaker, a display, aspeech synthesizer, an output port, an input port and a user inputdevice (such as a keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a microphone and thelike)). Although only one processor element is shown, it should be notedthat the general-purpose computer may employ a plurality of processorelements. Furthermore, although only one general-purpose computer isshown in the figure, if the method 200 or 300 as discussed above isimplemented in a distributed or parallel manner for a particularillustrative example, i.e., the steps of the above methods 200 and 300,or the entire method 200 or 300 are implemented across multiple orparallel general-purpose computers, then the general-purpose computer ofthis figure is intended to represent each of those multiplegeneral-purpose computers.

Furthermore, one or more hardware processors can be utilized insupporting a virtualized or shared computing environment. Thevirtualized computing environment may support one or more virtualmachines representing computers, servers, or other computing devices. Insuch virtualized virtual machines, hardware components such as hardwareprocessors and computer-readable storage devices may be virtualized orlogically represented.

It should be noted that the present disclosure can be implemented insoftware and/or in a combination of software and hardware, e.g., usingapplication specific integrated circuits (ASIC), a programmable gatearray (PGA) including a Field PGA, or a state machine deployed on ahardware device, a general purpose computer or any other hardwareequivalents, e.g., computer readable instructions pertaining to themethod(s) discussed above can be used to configure a hardware processorto perform the steps, functions and/or operations of the above disclosedmethods. In one embodiment, instructions and data for the present moduleor process 405 for providing an emergency notification for an allergicreaction (e.g., a software program comprising computer-executableinstructions) can be loaded into memory 404 and executed by hardwareprocessor element 402 to implement the steps, functions or operations asdiscussed above in connection with the exemplary method 200 or method300. Furthermore, when a hardware processor executes instructions toperform “operations”, this could include the hardware processorperforming the operations directly and/or facilitating, directing, orcooperating with another hardware device or component (e.g., aco-processor and the like) to perform the operations.

The processor executing the computer readable or software instructionsrelating to the above described method(s) can be perceived as aprogrammed processor or a specialized processor. As such, the presentmodule 405 for providing an emergency notification for an allergicreaction (including associated data structures) of the presentdisclosure can be stored on a tangible or physical (broadlynon-transitory) computer-readable storage device or medium, e.g.,volatile memory, non-volatile memory, ROM memory, RAM memory, magneticor optical drive, device or diskette and the like. More specifically,the computer-readable storage device may comprise any physical devicesthat provide the ability to store information such as data and/orinstructions to be accessed by a processor or a computing device such asa computer or an application server.

While various embodiments have been described above, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and nota limitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of a preferred embodimentshould not be limited by any of the above-described exemplaryembodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the followingclaims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for providing a notification of a usageof a medical injector, the method comprising: receiving, via aprocessor, the notification in a text message format; determining, viathe processor from the notification in the text message format, locationinformation of the medical injector and a time of the usage of themedical injector; converting, via the processor, the notification in thetext message format to a format in accordance with an emergency serviceprovider; and sending, via the processor, the notification in the formatin accordance with the emergency service provider comprising the time ofthe usage of the medical injector and the location information of themedical injector.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification issent to the emergency service provider.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein the processor provides an additional notification to a list ofrecipients, wherein the list of recipients comprises one or more of: afamily member, a guardian, a next of kin, a caregiver, a doctor, aneighbor, a school official, and a nurse.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the format in accordance with the emergency service providercomprises a voice format.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein theprocessor comprises a processor of a server of a network serviceprovider.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the processor augments thenotification in the format in accordance with the emergency serviceprovider with personalized information of an intended patient.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the location information comprises alatitudinal coordinate and a longitudinal coordinate at which thecoordinate is located.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the locationinformation further comprises an altitude at which the medical injectoris located.
 9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device storinga plurality of instructions which, when executed by a processor, causethe processor to perform operations for providing a notification of ausage of a medical injector, the operations comprising: receiving thenotification in a text message format; determining from the notificationin the text message format location information of the medical injectorand a time of the usage of the medical injector; converting thenotification in the text message format to a format in accordance withan emergency service provider; and sending the notification in theformat in accordance with the emergency service provider comprising thetime of the usage of the medical injector and the location informationof the medical injector.
 10. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage device of claim 9, wherein the notification is sent to theemergency service provider.
 11. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage device of claim 10, wherein the operations further compriseproviding an additional notification to a list of recipients, whereinthe list of recipients comprises one or more of: a family member, aguardian, a next of kin, a caregiver, a doctor, a neighbor, a schoolofficial, and a nurse.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readable storagedevice of claim 9, wherein the format in accordance with the emergencyservice provider comprises a voice format.
 13. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage device of claim 9, wherein the processorcomprises a processor of a server of a network service provider.
 14. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 13, wherein theprocessor augments the notification in the format in accordance with theemergency service provider with personalized information of an intendedpatient.
 15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device ofclaim 9, wherein the location information comprises a latitudinalcoordinate and a longitudinal coordinate at which the coordinate islocated.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device ofclaim 15, wherein the location information further comprises an altitudeat which the medical injector is located.
 17. An apparatus for providinga notification of a usage of a medical injector, the apparatuscomprising: a processor; and a computer-readable storage device storinga plurality of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causethe processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:receiving the notification in a text message format; determining fromthe notification in the text message format location information of themedical injector and a time of the usage of the medical injector;converting the notification in the text message format to a format inaccordance with an emergency service provider; and sending thenotification in the format in accordance with the emergency serviceprovider comprising the time of the usage of the medical injector andthe location information of the medical injector.
 18. The apparatus ofclaim 17, wherein the notification is sent to the emergency serviceprovider.
 19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the operations furthercomprise providing an additional notification to a list of recipients,wherein the list of recipients comprises one or more of: a familymember, a guardian, a next of kin, a caregiver, a doctor, a neighbor, aschool official, and a nurse.
 20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein theformat in accordance with the emergency service provider comprises avoice format.